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Merry Christmas from Maxjet. The discount all-business class airline shut down all its operations today — on Christmas Eve — when it declared bankruptcy earlier in the day.

The airline’s demise was no surprise — see this post — but passengers are now left scrambling to find alternate ways to and from their destinations, with some help.

MAXjet said it was working with rival all-business class Eos Airlines to find alternative routes. Meanwhile, Continental Airlines and Silverjet Aviation Ltd., another all-business class carrier, said they would honor limited numbers of MAXjet tickets.

“Honoring” tickets doesn’t mean they’ll do it entirely for free, but the cost is minimal. Continental’s rules for accepting these Maxjet tickets state:

MAXjet customers will be accepted for travel on a standby basis on Continental flights between Los Angeles/Las Vegas/Newark and London Gatwick from Dec. 24, 2007 through January 6, 2008. Passengers will be charged a $50 per flight segment ticketing fee, plus any applicable taxes and security fees. Continental will waive the current fuel service charge normally required for Newark to London passengers.

Note that they don’t state that they’ll transport you in business class, just that they’ll transport you on a standby basis. Lesson: If you want to fly in business class, and if Eos or Silverjet will take you, take advantage of that (especially if it’s the superior service at Eos). Call them first before you just show up at the airport with your Maxjet scrip.

Also: if you haven’t started your travels yet, you may not be able to simply swap carriers. Getting a refund — if possible — may be the better option. Notify your credit card company and let them know. If you bought through a travel agent, call them ASAP.

Maxjet’s homepage has an apology and some instructions, too.

For those left with this conundrum, my condolences, and best wishes for finding a way home, or wherever Maxjet was going to take you. Feel free to report back with tales of how you got there and back.

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This past Friday, all-business class carrier Maxjet suspended trading of its shares on the London-based Alternative Investment Market stock exchange. The reasons for the trading halt started vague (”pending clarification of its financial position”) but got more dire as the day went on (”…the US group struggled to put together a financial rescue package.”)

Uh oh.

It’s not easy being Maxjet. As the least-luxurious of the all-business carriers flying between New York and London, it lacks the cachet of an Eos, or even a Silverjet. And Maxflier, their frequent flyer program, stinks. (16 roundtrips necessary in order to get a free trip? C’mon!)

The airline assures its customers and suppliers that it’s still operating as usual, but it’s facing a cash crunch and is trying to line up funds to stay afloat. This doesn’t look good for them.

Maxjet is certainly a pioneer, but they’re facing stiff competition from both upstart airlines and old-school carriers on a well-traveled route. Those competitors are bound to benefit from this uncertainty that now hangs over Maxjet. The biggest thing going for Maxjet has been good value — even if they’re not the top of the line. But with expenses going up, that’s been a tough model to sustain.

Related:
- Maxjet’s fatal flaw?
- All-business class to China?
- Silverjet IPO enables third London-New York all-business-class airline

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Next thing to worry about in flight: Ozone
Like “sick building syndrome,” you can now start worrying about the plane’s air. But not because of the germs. It’s the ozone. Not holes in the ozone layer, either, but ozone levels in the cabin. Most interestingly, narrow-body flights are more prone than wide-body planes to higher ozone levels. Yet another reason to love the jumbos.

Korean Air shows off its Airbus A380 interiors
Singapore Airlines may be the first airline to fly the A380 mega-uber-hyper-super-jumbo-jet (and tickets are finally on sale for Sydney-Singapore flights, which start October 25, by the way), but you can get a photo tour of Korean Air’s A380. Lavender??! Who’s their interior designer? Yuck! (Thanks, Jeff!)

First class fare sale… if you’re traveling tomorrow
I know that airlines like to put out the e-fares and net-savers for weekend travel, but this offer from United struck me as odd. First class fares are on sale for travel on Saturday, September 15 only. Fly there in first, fly back in coach, savor the difference? Fares are less than regular paid first, but the bulk of fares are for really short flights where paying cash money for first class is bonkers.

Business class fare sales to Europe
All-business class L’Avion is flying Newark to Paris for $1398 roundtrip, pre-tax. Maxjet is doing London to New York or DC for $998, also roundtrip, also pre-tax. Both are through the end of 2007, but not every date may be available. (Thanks, Michelle!)

More dangerous shirts
I don’t know what to make of this. “Your liver is evil. It must be punished.” Har har har. But Continental Airlines wasn’t laughing when they kept Edna and Frank Taylor from getting onboard, because of that shirt. What’s with this “What Not to Wear” airline trend?

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For just over a year, the major airlines have been fighting it out with all-business class upstarts like Maxjet, Eos, and L’Avion for trans-Atlantic premium traffic. Most of those seats are going from New York to London. But the Pacific has been conspicuously absent, with the skies still dominated by the big network carriers and their traditional economy/business/first configurations. Now Maxjet wants to fly to China.

Much like their bigger competitors, they filed paperwork with the Department of Transportation in an effort to get one of the very few available slots (see here for some background). Maxjet proposes a route that takes passengers from Los Angeles to Seattle, and then on to Shanghai.

Given that Maxjet is up against every other major US airline for a single flight slot that’s up for grabs, there is no way on earth that the Department of Transportation would give Maxjet the rights to the route. Maxjet’s Boeing 767s can’t carry nearly as many passengers or as much cargo as would be in the “national interest.” But the proposal signals that the company is looking beyond London.

So why hasn’t there been an entrepreneurial company that sells all-business flights to somewhere in Asia? The demand for premium cabins is high on those long trips — and frankly, that’s where you WANT to be in business class. A flight from New York to London isn’t really that long, and most people can manage that in coach. But a long-haul flight from North America to Asia or Australia in coach? Brutal.

I’m no airline economist nor an aerospace engineer, so I don’t have the answer. Perhaps the problem is filling planes that can actually reach Asia from the U.S. without a refueling stop in Alaska. Filling a 747, 777, or A340 with nothing but business class passengers might be tough for a new company, and most smaller planes don’t have the range to make it across the ocean. (Note that Maxjet’s proposed flight leaves from Seattle, not LAX or SFO, which cuts a bit of mileage from the flight.) And some of the Asian carriers (e.g., Singapore and Cathay Pacific in particular) offer a really top-tier business class product, raising the bar for potential competitors.

One alternative might be Oasis Hong Kong Airlines. They aren’t all-business class, but they are selling premium seats at a major discount to their competitors. Oasis promises service from Hong Kong to Oakland, California soon (though their promise of starting service by June went unfulfilled). They are currently flying from Hong Kong to Vancouver and London. A roundtrip business class ticket to fly between Hong Kong and Vancouver runs around US$2800 without any special sales or promotion.

Perhaps China isn’t the right route for Maxjet. But Korea or Japan might make sense. Bring on the trans-Pacific competition.

Reader Steven writes in:

I know that so called y-up fares can be a good way to sit in first class for cheap, but I can’t find them for flights to Europe or Asia. Can you help?

The reason you can’t find them, Steven, is because there are none by that name. International long-haul discount first (and business) class fares go by different names than their domestic equivalents.

Y-UP fares and their ilk are limited to North American flights, and generally refer to an upgrade from coach to first on two-class planes. See here for background on Y-UP fares, and see FareCompare’s Y-UP search tool to find these fares on routes you travel.

For Europe or Asia, you’re generally going to be looking for Z-fares. But there’s no handy-dandy search tool (yet) for Z-fares like there is for Y-UPs. (Neil and Rick, consider this a challenge!…)

Z-fares crop up from time to time, but aren’t available on every route. Traveling in summer or the December holiday season maximizes your chances of finding such a fare.

For international premium class travel, be sure to also consider the startup airlines like Maxjet, Silverjet, Eos Airlines, MiMa, and L’Avion. These offer all-business class flights to London, Milan, or Paris.

Related:
- First class for less than coach?
- More tips on finding discounted first class fares (Y-UP, Q-UP, etc.)
- Update/Correction re: discounted first class fares (Y-UP, Q-UP, etc.)
- Y-UP and Q-UP first class fares apparently not enough: Welcome M-UP and B-UP fares
- More trans-Atlantic flights, but lower prices?

What happens on Maxjet, stays on Maxjet
All-business class Maxjet now flies from London to Vegas. And this promo photo makes me wish there were a law requiring pilots flying to Vegas to dress like Elvis. Thankyouverymuch.

LAX gets serious about security
LAX isn’t just re-evaluating their security, it’s Israelifying it. Benet Wilson reports that the airport has contracted the Israeli equivalent of the CIA as security consultants. No word if the airport will require El Al-style customer interrogations in order to get on a plane. (Please, no.)

Hotels full of lying, thieving crooks… and that’s the guests
Chris Elliott digs through the raw data in the latest TripAdvisor poll. And whaddaya know, people really do steal towels. 37% of guests under 35 admitted they stole something, while only 15% of the over-50 crowd admitted to it. Note: The numbers only reflect the respondents who admitted it. I’d love to see the numbers of actual items absconded, or the percentage of rooms with missing goods. But who really WANTS that stuff, anyway, five-finger discount or not?

Northwest Airlines mechanics end strike, still don’t work for Northwest
The death of brinksmanship: After 15 long months of striking, Northwest’s mechanics, represented by the AMFA union, called off their pickets. But they’ve long been replaced by scabs. Why call off a strike if their jobs are gone? The airline will give them a severance package now that the strike is over.

Canada not on sale any more
Remember when the US dollar got around $1.50 Canadian? Memories! (It’s around $1.12 as I type.) But it’s about to get more expensive for non-Canadians visiting the country. It has long been possible to get a tax refund at the border, including the GST paid for hotel stays. Effective April 1, 2007, no such refunds will be possible any longer. Bummer. Nice to get it while it lasted, of course, but honestly, the hotel stay tax refund never made sense to me.

US Airways shortens the life of a mile
Most airlines expire your miles after 3 years (you generally reset the clock with a flight, or any other account activity.) US Airways has now cut that time to 18 months. If you’re earning anything in your account, this is moot. But if you rarely earn miles, make sure to credit something small to your US Airways account to keep balances alive. Better yet, spend ‘em!

Maxjet marketers suck up to the boss
I’m all for fare sales. And a $999 roundtrip business class fare from New York to London is great. But to say that it’s in celebration of the CEO’s birthday? Asskissers. (Use code CEOBDAY to get the deal at maxjet.com.)

The 9/11 hijackers are on the no-fly list
Thank goodness they’re on the list now that they’re dead.

World’s best airport security? Sweden!
Rah, rah, Sweden. Biometrics in full effect, while safeguarding privacy.

US and EU reach deal on passenger data
Not much more information out there, other than the fact that a deal of some kind has been reached. But this means that airlines flying between the EU and US won’t be fined. I certainly hope the details don’t remain secret forever, though.

Slower blogging this week
Expect fewer posts this week. I’m at O’Hare as we speak, waiting for this specific plane to board. Happy travels to those on the road.

All-business class startup carrier Maxjet is running another fare sale. The deal:

$999 INCLUDING all taxes and fees for travel between London-Stansted and Washington-Dulles or New York-JFK, in business class. That’s a great deal.

Book before midnight on October 1, 2006 for travel between November 1, 2006 and February 28, 2007.
Use Promo code: ANNV06

Related:
- Another all-business class airline…
- All-biz airlines filling planes… and knife-wielding passengers’ stomachs
- Do we really need ANOTHER all-business class airline to London?
- MaxJet’s fatal flaw?

“Can you hear me? I’m on a plane! A plane!!!”
It’s official: Ryanair is allowing inflight use of mobile phones, with service provided via OnAir. The airline takes a cut of the roaming charge. For the notoriously no-frills airline, does this count as a frill?

Be productive, or be a tourist, in airports
Passing several hours at the airport? Not entering a lounge? Here’s a short guide to time-killing diversions at the busiest airports in the world. (If this had been in European media, I’d wager they’d be listing the Beate Uhse shop at Frankfurt Airport, and providing a list of smoking areas.) What I’d like to see more of at airports: Napping stations like they have in Vancouver.

Private travel gets faster
Lockheed Martin is developing a supersonic private jet that should be able to cross the United States in two hours, without the loud sonic booms that gave the Concorde a bad name. Though the QSST (quiet supersonic transport) will be fast, sales will probably lag microjets, which are rapidly gaining popularity (despite some models lacking a bathroom).

What happens onboard Maxjet stays onboard Maxjet
All-business-class discounter Maxjet is starting a new route: Las Vegas to London-Stansted. But will they offer inflight gambling, as Ryanair has proposed? Who will claim The Loosest Slots in the Sky??

Door Wars: The New York Times’ Joe Sharkey heeds the call
Welcome to the revolution, Joe. Like many travelers, Joe often can’t get enough sleep in hotels. Noise, especially hallway noise, is the enemy. I sympathize. But I’m glad to see that AmericInn is promoting quieter rooms. I’ve never stayed in one of their hotels, but this certainly sounds appealing.

Flying Maxjet or Eos?

Looking to choose the best seats on the plane?

SeatExpert now covers the two all-business class airlines. Seats are color-coded for good, bad, and so-so seating, but annotated comments are yet to come. See here for Eos, and here for Maxjet. (The odd shape of Eos’ seats on the map reflects their use of ottomans and privacy partitions in their seating units.)

Flying Southwest?
Savvy Southwest flyers have been checking in online 24 hours before their flight, to get that boarding pass in group A and assure themselves of early boarding. Many use automated check-in services that guarantee an A pass, since they’re cheap, or even free.

But legitimate “A” holders may be fighting for space with cheaters. Someone posted a method of hacking your boarding pass to change the B or C to an A. It’s astonishingly simple, and it’s frankly an embarrassment to Southwest that their boarding passes are so easily manipulated. (No, you can’t create a boarding pass willy-nilly and fly around the country for free… the barcode still contains the information about you and your itinerary.) A similar trick could be used to change the date and print yourself a boarding pass for security, if you wanted to accompany a friend to the gate. (It won’t let you on a plane.) This latter trick I have no problem with, since you’d just be using the boarding pass to enter security, not cheating your way into better seats.

I wonder how long it will take before the company changes the HTML of the passes to prevent this sort of hack. When 137 people line up with “A” passes, with no one in “B” or “C”? Start the clock. (Via digg, thanks to reader BJ!)

(images: Maxjet, ladygypsy)

Ok, maybe I’m just being lazy, but why reinvent the wheel? Other blogs have some good stuff up today, so I’m riffing off that.

- Jared Blank cuts through American Airlines’ PR for their new business class seats (which I first mentioned (with photo) here). It’s nice that the seat is being upgraded, and all, but Jared rightly takes this sentence from the Boston Globe’s coverage and demolishes it: “Hadden claims American’s new seat offers a combination of flatness, width, and adjustments that can’t be matched by other carriers.” Maybe that statement is true on it’s surface: other carriers can’t match their offerings DOWN to American’s level… But there are plenty of competitors whose business class seat is more horizontal, wider, and with better audio/video — in short, better than AA’s biz class. Nice try, though.

- Remember Ed Hasbrouck’s scuffle with the TSA (mentioned earlier here), when he was detained and had documents removed and photocopied, all because he questioned the legitimacy of a rent-a-cop’s authority? His correspondence with the TSA continues, and he has a followup.

- Gary Leff takes on the conventional wisdom that frequent flyer miles are impossible to redeem, and offers solid advice. Amusingly, his springboard is this past Sunday’s “Cathy” comic strip. Shorter version: Know ALL the flight options, on all possible partner airlines, and use the phone instead of the website. As I’ve said before, the mainstream media loves to beat the drum of how impossible it is to redeem miles. It isn’t always easy, and you don’t always get what you want on the first try, but I agree with Gary: You CAN redeem miles for excellent rewards if you plan ahead, know your options, and remain persistent. The bigger question is why “Cathy” is still being published. Or better yet: Why is Gary reading it!?

- Tricia Holly Davis of the Times of London is miffed at MAXjet, and the MAXexecutives at the corporate MAXoffice can’t be happy with what she wrote. Jared Blank (again!) thinks she went too far in calling the airline to the carpet like this. I disagree somewhat. Sure, mechanical delays happen, but the airline lied (or, more generously, offered completely false information) about their responsibilities to their customers, their agreements with other airlines, and the availability of alternatives. From the CEO down. On old-school airlines, if the carrier cancels or indefinitely delays a flight, you can invoke “rule 240″ to be reaccomodated on another airline at no cost to you. MAXjet’s contract of carriage doesn’t use the regulation-era rule 240 moniker, but it still has a rule 240-esque “failure to operate as scheduled” clause (see bottom p. 19 of the contract - PDF). The airline screwed up, plain and simple, and its customer service was rotten. It deserved the bad press it got. That said, the article *does* go too far in predicting the entire airline will fail, and Davis could have made the piece more of a consumer advocacy article by explaining passengers’ rights more explicitly.

Posh all-business class Eos Airlines did the unthinkable last month: It broke even. Business must be going well: The airline, which flies New York-JFK to London-Stansted in Boeing 757s configured with 48 seats, has been flying at 70% capacity and will add a second daily flight to the schedule in September.

All-biz competitor Maxjet has been showing similarly full planes, but hasn’t made any statements as to profitability. Maxjet, too, is adding flights and leasing more planes.

I still stand by my earlier comments that Maxjet, while providing a great value for a reasonably posh flight, is still not a serious business airline. It’s luxury class for tourists — and that’s terrific! Nothing wrong with that, but it ain’t business.

But let’s put aside gripes about the seat… what’s the food like? Enter AirlineMeals.net, the web’s repository for photos and menus of inflight dining, past and present. It’s an amazing resource, and worth your perusal, much like opening up a time capsule. But it also lets you see what various airlines around the world actually offer in terms of inflight service.

Maxjet’s food looks good. (Virgin Atlantic’s food looks nicer, though Virgin also charges two to three times as much for airfare… but check out that dessert at #117!)

Eos isn’t included in airlinemeals.net yet, but I found the adjacent photo on flickr. And they have real metal knives! (Gasp!) Someone alert the TSA!

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